This invention generally pertains to social networking, and more specifically to combining social networking system content and advertisements in a social networking environment.
Social networks, or social utilities that track and enable connections between members (including people, businesses, and other entities), have become prevalent in recent years. In particular, social networking systems allow members to communicate information more efficiently. For example, a member may post contact information, background information, job information, hobbies, and/or other member-specific data to a location associated with the member on a social networking system. Other members can then review the posted data by browsing member profiles or searching for profiles including specific data. The social networking systems also allow members to associate themselves with other members, thus creating a web of connections among the members of the social networking system. These connections among the members can be exploited by the social networking system to offer more relevant information to each member in view of the members' own stated interests.
Social networking systems typically incorporate a system for connecting members to content that is most likely to be relevant to each member. For example, members may be grouped according to one or more common attributes in their profiles, such as geographic location, employer, job type, age, music preferences, interests, or other attributes. Members of the social networking system or external parties can then use these groups to customize or target information delivery so that information that might be of particular interest to a group can be communicated to that group.
Advertisers have attempted to leverage this information about members by targeting their ads to members whose interests best align with the ads. For example, a social networking system may display banner ads for a concert to members who include an affinity for the performing band in their social networking system profile and live near a concert venue where that band might be performing. However, these attempts are no different than targeting of ads that exist in many other contexts. Advertisers have not yet been able to exploit the relationships and connections among members of a social networking system in a meaningful way to increase user engagement with an advertisement or the advertised product.